Singular perturbation of polynomial potentials in the complex domain with applications to PT-symmetric families

In the first part of the paper, we discuss eigenvalue problems of the form -w"+Pw=Ew with complex potential P and zero boundary conditions at infinity on two rays in the complex plane. We give sufficient conditions for continuity of the spectrum when the leading coefficient of P tends to 0. In the second part, we apply these results to the study of topology and geometry of the real spectral loci of PT-symmetric families with P of degree 3 and 4, and prove several related results on the location of zeros of their eigenfunctions.Comment: The main result on singular perturbation is substantially improved, generalized, and the proof is simplified. 37 pages, 16 figure

Approximation of definable sets by compact families, and upper bounds on homotopy and homology

We prove new upper bounds on homotopy and homology groups of o-minimal sets in terms of their approximations by compact o-minimal sets. In particular, we improve the known upper bounds on Betti numbers of semialgebraic sets defined by quantifier-free formulae, and obtain for the first time a singly exponential bound on Betti numbers of sub-Pfaffian sets.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Elementary proof of the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for rational functions

We give a new elementary proof of the following theorem: if all critical points of a rational function g belong to the real line then there exists a fractional linear transformation L such that L(g) is a real rational function. Then we interpret the result in terms of Fuchsian differential equations whose general solution is a polynomial and in terms of electrostatics.Comment: 21 page

On metrics of curvature 1 with four conic singularities on tori and on the sphere

We discuss conformal metrics of curvature 1 on tori and on the sphere, with four conic singularities whose angles are multiples of pi/2. Besides some general results we study in detail the family of such symmetric metrics on the sphere, with angles (pi/2,3pi/2,pi/2,3pi/2).Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

Some lower bounds in the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for flag varieties

The B. and M. Shapiro conjecture stated that all solutions of the Schubert Calculus problems associated with real points on the rational normal curve should be real. For Grassmannians, it was proved by Mukhin, Tarasov and Varchenko. For flag varieties, Sottile found a counterexample and suggested that all solutions should be real under certain monotonicity conditions. In this paper, we compute lower bounds on the number of real solutions for some special cases of the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for flag varieties, when Sottile's monotonicity conditions are not satisfied.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, see also http://www.math.purdue.edu/~agabrie